Ms. Raya Ahmada

The State University of Zanzibar

Raya Idrissa Ahmada is an Assistant Lecturer at the State University of Zanzibar (SUZA), a mentor and student advisor. She is very passionate about data science and is researching in the areas of open source GIS tools, database administration and data analysis and web application development. She is also keen in mentoring the students to come up with innovative ideas to solve existing problems in the community. She has worked with students in several development projects such as the STEM for Success Project Zanzibar, as a technical assistant with Kiokit (a digital classroom technology), and with the Resilience Academy (https://resilienceacademy.ac.tz/) as an internship coordinator to help equip the youths with the tools, knowledge and skills to ensure resilient urban development. She is also the faculty mentor for the SUZA YouthMapper’s chapter (https://www.youthmappers.org/). She is currently a Youthmappers Regional Ambassador in Tanzania and She is leading the ZHErTech Initiative at SUZA with the aim of helping young girls to excel in technology. She has been part of the team in the Partnership Enhanced blendedLearning (PEBL) sponsored by the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) and has led the development of the Web Technologies module currently in the OER Africa. Raya is also the E-learning and Curriculum expert under the GeoICT4e project which focuses on improving geospatial and ICT education in Tanzania (https://www.oph.fi/en/projects/geoict4e).